The rumors were all true! Redmond has just made an official announcement confirming that both Tony Bates and Tami Reller are parting ways with the company to pursue other opportunities.

Suitable replacements, the company says, have already been found. Within.

We first got wind of this development yesterday. And CEO Satya Nadella fired off a memo to employees this morning revealing that Tony Bates, the EVP of business development and evangelism at Microsoft decided that this was the right time for him to look for his next opportunity and said his final goodbye.

Eric Rudder is going to be his replacement, at least temporarily.

Tami Reller the former head of the Marketing Group, on the other hand, decided to take some time off and seek other jobs outside the company, Nadella said.

But these three are not the only big changes happening in the Redmond campus.

Mark Penn is now set to take over the leadership role at the company as EVP, Chief Strategy Officer. Now the name might not ring the bell for some of you, but Mark is the one behind the Scroogled campaign that Microsoft has been running against longtime rival Google.

His new task is to provide input in the area of competitive research and analysis.